The senior BBC executive responsible for the corporation's diamond jubilee coverage has been unable to defend the output amid mounting criticism, because he is now on holiday.

BBC Vision director George Entwistle, a leading internal candidate to replace Mark Thompson as director general, went on holiday on Tuesday evening and could not appear on Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday to defend the corporation, which has faced criticism from vnewspapers, celebrities and even former executives about its four days of diamond jubilee coverage.

By Wednesday afternoon the BBC had also received 2,425 complaints from viewers and listeners about its diamond jubilee coverage, with the vast majority – 1,830 – about Sunday's Thames pageant. The BBC said it had also received "lots of positive feedback".

The BBC has received 945 complaints from those who felt its pageant coverage was poor as a whole, while 667 complained specifically about the commentary and presenters and another 218 felt there was too much studio discussion and not enough live coverage of the event itself.

A further 278 complaints have been received about Monday night's diamond jubilee concert from viewers who felt BBC1's coverage concluded too abruptly.

"If you've got that many presenters around the river, you're not going to like all of them each the same amount," said Damazer, who is now master of St Peter's College, Oxford.

A senior BBC source admitted that some of the coverage – especially of the river pageant – did not "go to plan" but cited the unprecedented difficulties of the scale of the outside broadcast and the "monstrous weather".

The BBC is also keen to point out the average audience of 10.3 million viewers for Sunday's Thames pageant on BBC1, and said it achieved an 82% AI rating, signifying a high level of audience appreciation.

Among those criticising the BBC was former Today editor Kevin Marsh who wrote on Twitter: "Am I being over-critical or is the BBC commentary lamentable?"

The bad weather during Sunday's river display caused technical problems, with the sound cutting out during musical performances and affecting the sound quality.

A senior BBC source said that this was the biggest outside broadcast of a flotilla ever undertaken, with 80 cameras attempting to film 1,000 boats.

"You cannot rehearse something of this scale and you certainly cannot have a running order or predict monstrous weather," the insider said.

The source said that senior staff involved in the coverage were too tired to appear on the Today programme: "They had worked flat out and we were unable to put up somebody who knew exactly what they were speaking about."

They said that Entwistle was in charge of the "vision" for the event but not for the "minutiae" of the coverage.

Ben Weston, the executive editor of the BBC's four-day coverage of the diamond jubilee celebrations, told Radio 5 Live on Monday: "We didn't just want to reflect what was happening on the boats... we wanted to reflect all the colour and the celebration going on in the parks."

The BBC's coverage of Monday night's diamond jubilee concert in front of Buckingham Palace and Tuesday's service of thanksgiving service from St Paul's Cathedral was generally better received.

However, some viewers were upset that the concert coverage cut to around ten seconds of credits before the firework display at the climax of the event was finished.

Despite this, the BBC's overall coverage outperformed all other broadcasters in the ratings.

On Monday night the Buckingham Palace concert averaged 14.7 million viewers – the biggest audience for any UK TV show so far this year.

Tuesday's service of thanksgiving attracted a 4.5 million average for BBC1, more than three times the 1.4 million average for ITV's coverage of the same event.

A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC reviews all the programming it broadcasts and this weekend is no exception. The concert was watched by a peak audience of 17 million, making it the highest rating show of the year, whilst an average audience of over 10 million saw our coverage of the pageant, a broadcasting event of unprecedented scale and complexity."

Thompson sent an internal email to BBC staff on Wednesday in which he made no mention of the criticism of the coverage, instead offering congratulations on diamond jubilee coverage that was "impressive not only in its scale, but in its ambition, quality and outstanding journalism".

"By capturing the spectacle of the Thames pageant and yesterday's ceremonies alongside smaller local celebrations we reflected reaction from up and down the country. Our role in creating and staging Monday's incredible diamond jubilee concert also meant we made our own contribution to a special moment in our nation's history," the director general said.

"This was a weekend when most British households put understandable cares and anxieties aside and celebrated a moment of national reflection and thanks for the Queen's lifetime of service and devotion. I am very proud that the BBC was able to bring them together in such a unique and memorable way."

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

• To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook